Welcome to our website as you explore the possibilities of a psychiatry residency at Broadlawns Medical Center and UnityPoint Health – Des Moines. It is my pleasure to greet you as you familiarize yourself with our program. Ours is a new program, which is part of three institutions with long histories of success in Graduate Medical Education.

I personally am new to the program, Broadlawns, UnityPoint and Iowa. I was attracted to move to the Des Moines area with my family by the excitement of shaping a new program in a state with incredible need for more psychiatric physicians. I bring my two decades of experience in residency education to shaping this program to begin to meet that need. This is an exciting time for psychiatry, as people in Iowa and around the country begin to understand what we who work in this field have always known; that, without mental health, there is no health.

As we create the training programs of the future, I believe it is important to remember that psychiatrists need to be leaders of mental health professionals and guides for our non-psychiatrist physician colleagues as they help their patients with mental health issues. This means that it is essential to not only develop competence in the depth and breadth of our field during residency, but also to develop leadership skills and expertise in extending ourselves beyond our individual reach as clinicians as we assist our colleagues in providing direct care to patients. Because this is a new program, we will be able to develop it to meet these goals.

The transition from medical school to residency training is a time of growth as you move into a position with significantly more responsibility than you experienced as a student. The Broadlawns UnityPoint Psychiatry Residency program is sensitive to the stress of the evolution to becoming a practicing physician and ultimately, to being an independent psychiatrist. It is our goal to assist you in any way that we can with a successful transition and to position you on a path of lifelong learning and success.

Residents in our psychiatry residency program spend time in three different medical settings for core rotations. Broadlawns Medical Center, UnityPoint Health-Des Moines, and the VA Central Iowa Health Care System have longstanding traditions of collaboration in providing superior medical education to students and residents. Residents work with a very diverse patient population within these systems providing a well-rounded experience. With support, education, and supervision from our experienced faculty, psychiatry residents will graduate with a sense of competence and confidence as they enter independent practice. Residents will also receive exposure to research, scholarly activity and administration to provide a well-rounded experience that complements clinical training.

The Broadlawns UnityPoint Psychiatry Residency Program seeks to understand the unique strengths, interests, and learning style of each individual resident, and to use that understanding to help provide each resident with the best possible residency experience. The flexibility of the fourth year allows residents to, with assistance from faculty, create a program of study that is best for them. It is an opportunity to explore special interests, gain more experience in areas where a resident might feel less confident, and to prepare for the next step in their career.

Please explore this website as an introduction to our program. If you have questions as you proceed, don’t hesitate to contact me so that I may assist you as you go through the process of applying for psychiatry residency training.